Boot From SD to Clear Device

[John Turner]

I have an Amiko A5L OTT which I bought a few years ago with software installed on it. I no longer use the software and want to install the device software on it. I have the software on an SD card but cannot boot the device from this card.

There is no option to reset the device (pinhole or AV options not available on this device).

Does anyone know how I can get the device to boot from the SD card (even using a keyboard)?

Every time I try it the old software loads and I have no options there to load it. I can see the SD card and access its contents but cannot boot this way either.

 

[Hadron]

You can't boot an android device from an SD card.

If you want to factory reset an android device the way to do it is to boot into recovery mode (which involves booting while pressing some combination of buttons - which combination depends on the device/manufacturer), from where you can select factory reset from the menu. However, that will not undo changes to system software, it just erases user-installed apps and data.

However it's not clear what you mean when you say "with software installed on it", since any Androd device has software installed on it. If you just mean that there is some app installed which you can't uninstall then a reset will do that, though if you can access the system menus there should be other ways. If however the system software has been modified you will need to do something different to change that: again, procedures and tools are device/manufacturer-specific, but in general it involves putting the device into fastboot or download mode and using a computer to flash the software. I've never heard of Amiko so have no information about how you flash their devices.

If your software is an image you might be able to boot into it temporarily using the "fastboot boot" command from a computer (with the software image also on the computer), but not all devices support "fastboot boot" (if yours does you need to install fastboot on a computer, connect the device via USB and boot it into fastboot mode). But that's only temporary.

I'm afraid that the bottom line is that more information about what you are trying to do and the software you are trying to install might help, because there are a lot of possibilities here.

 

[John Turner]

You can't boot an android device from an SD card.

If you want to factory reset an android device the way to do it is to boot into recovery mode (which involves booting while pressing some combination of buttons - which combination depends on the device/manufacturer), from where you can select factory reset from the menu. However, that will not undo changes to system software, it just erases user-installed apps and data.

However it's not clear what you mean when you say "with software installed on it", since any Androd device has software installed on it. If you just mean that there is some app installed which you can't uninstall then a reset will do that, though if you can access the system menus there should be other ways. If however the system software has been modified you will need to do something different to change that: again, procedures and tools are device/manufacturer-specific, but in general it involves putting the device into fastboot or download mode and using a computer to flash the software. I've never heard of Amiko so have no information about how you flash their devices.

If your software is an image you might be able to boot into it temporarily using the "fastboot boot" command from a computer (with the software image also on the computer), but not all devices support "fastboot boot" (if yours does you need to install fastboot on a computer, connect the device via USB and boot it into fastboot mode). But that's only temporary.

I'm afraid that the bottom line is that more information about what you are trying to do and the software you are trying to install might help, because there are a lot of possibilities here.

Hi Hadron,

Thanks for replying to me.

I contacted the manufacturer (Amiko) and they told me to download a system image (which they provided) to SD and it would auto boot from this (I did as they asked and it would not boot). Then they told me if that did not work to take it to my seller...a load of rubbish, they obviously do not want to waste time as it is now outdated (not for me).

Because of whatever software was loaded on the box by my seller (whom I no longer use) I am limited on what I can access. I can access the SD card but cannot get it to boot that way.

Hope this makes sense. If you need any other info please let me know as I have two of these boxes and it would help if I could use them again.